The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 47

THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE DECEMBER 17, 1995 West 13 West Weekly 1 HAPPENING iSt i Lincoln writer slowly plots fine mysteries MILLIS Holiday Concert. The Southeastern Massachusetts Community Concert Band will perform "Peter and the Wolf," music from "Sleeping Beauty," "Hansel and Gretel" and medleys of traditional Christmas and Cha-nukah tunes at 2:30 p.m. at St Paul's Church on Route 109. Free admission; please bring donations of canned goods to support local Jane Langton fills her stories with key details food pantry efforts. Call (508) 533-5532.

NATICK Arts and crafts extravaganza. Pottery, quilted pillows, wood toys, jewelry, ceramics, hand-made soap, birdhouses and more are featured 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at the National Guard Armory, 93 E. Central $3, seniors $2.50, under 12 free. Accessible to By Christopher Melton GLOBE CORRESPONDENT IN CO LN -Behind the soft-spoken graciousness of Jane Langton is a mind capable nf nlnttincr tVip npflr-nprfppf I -J murder.

Fortunatelv. her theme but, really, its meaning irtust come from an organic relationship with its setting." Long a feature of the mystfery shelves in both metropolitan lHd suburban bookstores, Langtoais something of a well-known secretj; Offering her devotees far more tharr a cleverly wrought whodunit. jy "Jane has an interesting ajidi-ence for a mystery writer," fciid Kate Mattes, owner of Kate's Mystery Books in Cambridge. "Large numbers of her audience do not consider themselves mystery readers, but enjoy her because they wahj to learn something from their reading. If you're really looking to experience a place and ponder the uniqueness'of it, then Jane Langton is the person to read." 1 Langton's familiarity with the re-gion is largely the product of exteh-sive research for her books.

Up with the sun, and regularly clad in denies and sneakers, she thinks nothing pf devoting an entire day to poring tivr plans and blueprints, scrutinizing maps and perusing weighty texts on local history. In fact, she considers these hours the preserve of the tnje private eye. Just like Homer Kelly, NEEDHAM Messiah Sing. Nine soloists from local i I i 1 I -v. i Ichurches, full string ensemble and piano featured in Handel's masterwork at 3 p.m.

at the First Baptist Church, 858 Great Plain Ave. Free. Come to sing or listen. Infant- toddler care available. Scores available.

Call 1(617) 444-1179. Continued on next page Vacation AcnvmES the tweedy sleuth she created her murder mysteries, Langton weapon of choice is the word processor, and her crimes are purely the stuff of fiction. For more than 30 years, Langton, working in the study of her Lincoln home, has quietly produced a large body of adult murder mysteries and classic award-winning children's stories. More than 500,000 copies of her Homer Kelly mysteries are in circulation, and her Newbery Award-winning book for young readers, "The Fledgling," is required reading in many elementary schools facts that the unassuming Langton greets with a characteristic, "Oh, that's nice." In both her children's books and her novels, Langton, who has been called "The Queen of the New England Mystery," invites the reader to explore the seldom seem and sometimes unseemly corners of Boston, Cambridge and the settled boroughs beyond. Langton's preoccupation with the architectural and human details of the local scene is what defines her as a writer.

Her knowledge of New England is, as Charles Dickens would say, "extensive and peculiar." "A novel grows out of a sense of place," the author said from the kitchen of her antique farmhouse, a stone's throw from Walden Pond, just over the town line in Concord. "A story might have some pompous fascinated by the intellectual chal chool will soon be out for the i holidays, but there's no lack of "activities to entertain and lenge of investigation. I "I just can't start a book until i I know everything. For my book, Th Dante I had to learn ItaliajiJ It would be better if I didn't bothe, but I write that kind of book, so I have to." Endlessly attentive to each dijj-tail, Langton does not choose quick sketched skyscrapers or vaguejy imagined street corners for her lj)r cales. Hers are scenes rich in history; she writes of landscapes whete buildings are adorned with "knobbed gables," "patterned brick," "projecting cornices," and "jutting bays!" places where it's easy to imagine repl Continued on nextpade GLOBE PHOTO MICHAEL QUAN educate children.

For those looking for music and theater, there'll be vacation week concerts by local children's entertainers Rick Goldin and David Polansky, and the return of the Turtle Lane Playhouse's fall production of "The Secret Garden." i Children can explore their artistic sides at the Danforth Museum's art workshops, or join Northborough's Oxford Academy Holiday Camp and try cooking, sports and more. A listing of events follows: 'A novel grows out of a sense of place. A story might have some pompous theme but, really, its meaning must come from an organic relationship with its JANE LANGTON, Lincoln mystery writer Framingham: Family Concert. Music fand puppets with children's Newton gives its artists a senior place of honof; Six works chosen for elders center in Newtonville By Marty Carlock GLOBE CORRESPONDENT i I Ij, i i i i mn EWTON "People think of this as home," said Joanne Fisher, program coordinator for the entertainer Rick Goldin 3-5 p.m. Dec.

25 at Temple Beth Am, 300 Pleasant St. Advance family ticket $12, at the door $15, additional guests $3.50 each. Please bring kosher canned goods for the Family Table. Call (508) 879-3300. Framingham: School Vacation Art Workshops.

Sessions in drawing, painting, pottery, cartooning, weaving, printmaking, fabric painting and more will meet 10 La.m.-noon and p.m. Dec. 26-28 at the Danforth Art Museum, 123 Union Ave. Additional workshops in early morning and late afternoon; $14 per session; register by Dec. 22.

Call (508) 620-0050. Framingham: Vacation Specials. Richard Brassey, author of "How to LiSpeak Chimpanzee," will discuss the sounds, physical expressions and motions that make up chimp at 7 p.m. Dec. 28 at Borders Book Shop, Worcester Road 9).

At 11 a.m. Dec. 30, New Year stories, hat making and noisemaker making will be featured. Call (508) 875-2321. Newton: "The Secret Garden." Broadway musical adaptation of the 55 classic children's story presented Dec.

126-31 at Turtle Lane Playhouse, 283 Melrose St. Performances at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, matinees p.m. Dec. 30 and 31.

Tickets $16 and Accessible to wheelchairs. Call 617) 244-0169. -Newton: Family Concert. Song and dance with trumpeter-pianist- David Polansky at 2 p.m. Dec.

27 at Newton North High School, ,360 Lowell Newtonville; $4 in advance, $5 at the door; one parent per family free. Sponsored by Newton Community Education. Call (617) 552-7461. Northborough: Holiday Recess Mini-fCamp. Sports, games, cooking, computers, arts and crafts and more will be featured 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

27-29 at the Oxford Academy, 33 ''Howard $135 (508) 393-3132. GLOBE PHOTO BILL POLO Newton Senior Center. So it seemed logical to hang some art in it. Not just any art, but original works from Newton's extensive and well-trained art Newton Senior Center visitors Helen Gazarian and Mort Cro- nin study a Gene Faucher painting, "The First among a half-dozen works that won a place of honor there. The Boston Artists Ensemble is to open its season today.

Ensemble to perform chamber-music hits you're a fan of chamber music, head to Newton's Trinity Episcopal Church today for the Boston Artists Ensemble's season opener. Guest cellist Emmanuel Feldman will join regulars Victor Romanul and Tatiana Dimitriades on violins. Burton The former library in Newtonville was refurbished and opened as a senior center two years ago. The grants that underwrote its new furnishings and redecoration "set aside $5,000 for art," said Andre Dibner, chairman of the art committee. The committee decided to hold a competition for paintings to fill six niches in the main function room.

The only requirements were that the artists be residents of Newton, and that the works be no more than 36 by 48 inches. More than 50 artists submitted slides, competing for the six $600 purchase prizes. The winners, whose works now hang permanently in the center, were Francis Azzarto, Gene Faucher, Miriam Freedman, Miriam Gil-man, Laura Scheuerell and James W. Veatch. The paintings hang in the multifunction room.

There are still books there, evoking its former use, but "we might have an aerobics class, a concert, a Three Stooges movie here," "One of the things that's been amazing," said director Jayne Colino, "is how the community and the center have connected through this. Five ojf the artists had no connection with the center, but for the rest of their lives, they will." Repercussions may ripple further. "Boston Centerpiece," Freedman's painting of Beacon Hifl and the State House, grabbed the eye of stat Rep. Kay Khan of Newton. "She thought it would make great note cards," Colino said.

"She's gotteA everything under way to have it printed and sold at the State House, with proceeds to go SeniorCenter." Freedman has been painting full-time since she retired two years ago from teaching kinderi garten at Angier School. But she has taken many courses at the Massachusetts College of Art and earlier, at the DeCordova Museum in Lincolm For many years, she has maintained a studio at her home on Cape Cod and spent her summer vacations painting, and for the past five or six years has exhibited as a member of the New Enj gland Watercolor Society. As a teacher of grades SENIOR CENTER, Page 15 Fine and Kazuko Matsusaka on violas and Jonathan Miller on cello. The program includes Brahms' romantic "String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat," Boccherini's elegant "Quintet in and Ravel's "1910 String Quartet," considered one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.

The performance is to begin at 2:30 p.m. at the church on the comer of Homer and Centre streets in Newton Centre. Tickets are $20, $17 for students and seniors. Call (617) 964-6553. -V MILVADiDOMIZIO.